Aigues-Mortes

Aigues-Mortes, town, Gard département, Occitanie région, southeastern France, southwest of Nîmes, on the Canal du Rhône à Sète, with its own 3.5-mile (6-km) canal to the Gulf of Lion. Its name comes from aquae mortuae, the “dead waters” of the surrounding saline delta marshland. Built by Louis IX as the embarkation port for his two Crusades (seventh, 1248; eighth, 1270), the little town is enclosed by crenellated and tower-strengthened walls 25 to 30 feet (8 to 9 metres) high, which trace a rectangle roughly 0.5 by 0.25 mile (800 by 400 metres). The medieval town plan remains intact. Fishing is a source of revenue, although the port long ago silted up. The principal industry is the extraction and processing of marsh salt. Tourism is also important. Pop. (1999) 6,012; (2014 est.) 8,417.